New Testament Greek for Beginners

(Based on the book with the same title by Gresham Machen, The MacMillan Company, 1923)

References

40. Here the rule of noun accent decrees that the accent must be on the ultima in all cases, because it was there in the nominative singular. But which accent shall it be? The general rules of accent answer this question where the ultima is short; for of course only an acute, not a circumflex, can stand on a short syllable. But where the ultima is long, the general rules of accent will permit either an acute or a circumflex. A special rule is therefore necessary. It is as follows:

In the second declension, when the ultima is accented at all, it has the circumflex in the genitive and dative of both numbers, elsewhere the acute.

Explanation: The “elsewhere” really refers only to the accusative plural, because in the nominative and vocative singular and plural and in the accusative singular the general rules of accent would forbid the circumflex, the ultims being short in these cases.